Differences between iFCP & FCIP

Introduction
Fibre Channel (FC) is the most widely used technology for storage networking. Data
networking world is ruled by TCP/IP. FC and TCP/IP are two different worlds. Is there
a way to send storage data across the omnipresent TCP/IP without losing the FC
advantage? Is a connection between the two domains possible? The answer is yes,
by using Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) & Fibre Channel over Internet
Protocol (FCIP). The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has
standardized these protocols, but haziness exists on differences between the two and
the suitability of each in the enterprise scenario. This paper aims to resolve the
nebulosity.

How does iFCP work?

iFCP is a gateway to gateway protocol that is used to connect FC devices and/or FC
SANs to existing IP infrastructure. As shown in Fig 1, individual FC devices can
communicate via the IP network using iFCP gateways. The gateways talk using iFCP.
FC messaging services and routing services are terminated at the gateways so the
fabrics are not merged to one another.

Fig 1. FC devices communicating via iFCP.

iFCP has been designed to use the existing TCP/IP networks transport services. It
sends FC data on the transport connections provided by TCP. Thus the fabric services
are provided by TCP/IP and not by FC. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the only the Top
layer of FC-4 is utilized in the stack, the lower layers are TCP/IP layers. Thus the FC4 layer which is the upper level layer sends storage data it receives from
applications, using the TCP transport services.

Fig.2 The iFCP protocol stack

Source: iSCSI* Review by Vladamir Savyak (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/iscsi/)

How does FCIP work?

FCIP is a protocol used for connecting geographically separated FC SANs.

FC Devices

Tunneling through IP

Fig 3. FCIP Tunneling to connect FC SANs across IP network

Source: Clearing the Confusion: A Primer on IP Storage Volume 2 by Ahmad Zamar (SNIA
http://www.snia.org/)

It does so by tunneling through the IP network to connect the FC SANs. Tunneling

refers to the concept of transporting encapsulated FC frames across an IP network.
Encapsulation means that the payload of the Ethernet frames carry FC frames. The
fabric services are those of the individual FC SAN in this case.
* iSCSI- A protocol that exists in the IP Storage space but is not in the purview of this discussion.

Fig 4. FC frame encapsulation within IP datagram

Source: Clearing the Confusion: A Primer on IP Storage Volume 2 by Ahmad Zamar (SNIA
http://www.snia.org/)

Since FCIP is a Tunneling protocol, only FCIP gateway needs to be aware of

encapsulation. Thus, the frame appears like FC to the SAN, and IP to the LAN.

Fig 5. FCIP protocol stack

Source: iSCSI Review by Vladamir Savyak (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/iscsi/)

The stack shows that the entire FC stack is placed on the TCP/IP layers and thus
when interpreted at the gateway, yields an FC frame. This FC frame is stripped
within the FC SAN.

What are the differences between iFCP & FCIP?

1. The differences are evident when one compares the stacks shown in Fig 2 and
Fig.5. The stack of iFCP clearly shows that only the top layer of FC stack is placed
onto the existing IP stack. Thus the FC-4 layer (which deals with the SCSI-3
CBDs) utilizes the services provided by the TCP layer.

The FCIP stack in Fig. 5 shows that the entire FC stack, including the lower layers
are placed onto the TCP/IP stack. This means that the entire FC frame has been
encapsulated as the IP payload. No transport services of TCP are utilized.
2. iFCP is a Gateway-to-Gateway protocol whereas the FCIP is a tunneling protocol.
iFCP instead provides dynamic tunneling.
3. FCIP provides a SAN to SAN connection whereas iFCP can provide FC device-todevice communication, SAN to SAN communication or even a combination of the
two forms.
4. iFCP can have a different type of service (service from the transport layer) for
each device-to-device connection whereas FCIP has a single one applicable for
each device on both the SANs.
5. In FCIP, only the FCIP gateway has to be aware of the encapsulation, as it is
transparent to both SAN and LAN. In case of iFCP, all the devices are involved in
the process as the protocol utilizes services from the TCP/IP stack.

Conclusion
Both the protocols are methods to connect the two worlds of FC and TCP/IP. They
have their relative merits and areas of applications. They seem to be competing
technologies and their application areas look similar. The key to choosing between
them is to understand your requirements well. FCIP is useful in places with a low
budget. It is so because the existing infrastructure does not need to be altered.
Merely a FC to IP gateway needs to be installed. iFCP on the other hand is a costlier
alternative as it requires an iFCP gateway for each device but with the advantage
that each device to device connection, can utilize a different transport level service.

Glossary
1. CBD - Command Block Descriptor
2. FC Fibre Channel
3. FC-4 Top layer of FC stack
4. FCIP Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol
5. iFCP Internet Fibre Channel Protocol
6. iSCSI Internet Small Computer System Interface.
7. IP Internet Protocol
8. LAN Local Area Network
9. SAN Storage Area Network
10. SCSI Small Computer System Interface
11. SNIA Storage Networking Industry Association
12. TCP Transmission Control Protocol
References
1.
2.

iSCSI Review by Vladamir Savyak (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/iscsi/)

Clearing the Confusion: A Primer on IP Storage Volume 2 by Ahmad Zamar
( SNIA http://www.snia.org/)